Supreme Court ACQUITTED OF RAPE
Man’s Third Trial After standing trial in the Supreme Court yesterday for the third time on the same charge of rape, Thomas Mervyn Johnstone, aged 34, a factory hand (Mr G. R. Lascelles) was found not guilty by a jury after a retirement of 50 minutes. Johnstone, accused of the rape of a 17-year-old girl whom he had taken out in his car on the night of October 6 last, was first tried on November 16 before Mr Justice Macarthur, when a jury failed to agree. On his retrial on November 26, before the same judge, Johnstone was convicted, but was granted a new trial on appeal to the Court of Appeal. Mr Justice Wilson presided at yesterday’s trial, and ordered Johnstone to be discharged after the jury’s verdict had been given. Johnstone, as on the former occasions, pleaded not guilty, and denied the whole of the girl’s story. His Honour, in summing up the case to yesterday’s jury, said that there were but few points of corroboration of the girl’s account, and these were not strong. “I recommend you to consider this case on this basis,” his Honour said.
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Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31085, 14 June 1966, Page 6
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195Supreme Court ACQUITTED OF RAPE Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31085, 14 June 1966, Page 6
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